Top 5 matches have a few ties and more American promotions, so if you’re not a fan of puroresu, you’ll actually know what’s going on this week!

Now the second week of the new format, and there’s no spoilers because of how the cards were built! There are a few ties though, so that gives us more than 5 technically. It was a good week for wrestling.

Last week’s vote has concluded and it’s not a huge surprise. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Double Gold Dash: Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito, won the vote by a decent margin.

Time for this week’s matches!

Quick Top 5:

1. NXT UK TakeOver Blackpool II: Tyler Bate vs Jordan Devlin
   Rating: **** 1/2
2. Zero1 Happy New Year: Zero1 Championship: Yuji Hino (c) vs Yuji Okabayashi
   Rating: **** 1/4
3. Impact Wrestling Hard to Kill: Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Callihan (c)
   Rating: **** 1/4
4. NXT UK TakeOver Blackpool II: NXT UK Tag Team Championship 4 Way Ladder Match: Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) (c) vs South Wales Sub Culture (Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews) vs Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) vs Imperium (Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel)
   Rating: **** 1/4
5. Imapct Wrestling Hard to Kill: Call Your Shot Trophy: Michael Elgin vs Eddie Edwards
   Rating: ****
6. NJPW New Year Dash!!: Shingo Takagi & EVIL vs Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto
   Rating: ****
7. IMPACT!: Eddie Edwards vs Michael Elgin
   Rating: ****

Honorable Mentions:

• NXT UK TakeOver Blackpool II: NXT UK Championship: Joe Coffey vs WALTER (c)
  Rating: *** 3/4
  Zero1 Happy New Year: StrongHearts (T-Hawk, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie) vs Masato Tanaka, Ikuto Hidaka & Takuya Suguwara
  Rating: *** 1/2
  NJPW New Year Dash!!: Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs KENTA & Jay White
  Rating: *** 1/2
  Impact Hard to Kill: X Division Championship: Trey vs Ace Austin (c)
  Rating: *** 1/2 
  NXT: Dusty Tag Team Classic: Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) vs Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly)
  Rating: *** 1/2
  WWE Raw: Raw Tag Team Championship Triple Threat: Viking Raiders vs Gallows & Anderson vs Street Profits
  Rating: *** 1/4
  NWA Powerrr: TV Title 6:05 Qualifier: Nick Aldis vs Ricky Starks
  Rating: *** 1/4
  Impact Hard to Kill: Knockouts Championship Triple Threat: Jordynne Grace vs ODB vs Taya Valkyrie (c)
  Rating: *** 1/4
  NJPW New Year Dash!!: Taiji Ishimori & ELP vs El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs Roppongi 3k (SHO & YOH)
  Rating: *** 1/4
  Zero1 Happy New Year: Zero1 World & International Junior Heavyweight Championship: HUB vs SUGI (c)
  Rating: *** 1/4
  NXT UK TakeOver Blackpool II: UK Women’s Championship: Piper Niven vs Toni Storm vs Kay Lee Ray (c)
  Rating: *** 1/4
  NJPW New Year Dash!!: Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, Zack Sabre Jr & Taichi) vs CHAOS (Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI & Robbie Eagles)
  Rating: *** 1/4
  NXT: North American Number 1 Contender: Cameron Grimes vs Keith Lee vs Dominik Dijakovic vs Damian Priest
  Rating: *** 1/4
  WWE Raw: United States Championship: Andrade vs Rey Mysterio
  Rating: ***
  NJPW New Year Dash!!: Alex Coughlin, Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks vs Toa Henare, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura
  Rating: ***
  AEW Dynamite: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs Private Party
  Rating: ***
  Zero1 Happy New Year: NWA International Tag Team Championship: Shinjiro Otani & Shoki Kitamura vs Masashi Takeda & Yuko Miyamoto (c)
  Rating: ***
  NJPW New Year Dash!!: Guerrillas of Destiny, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens vs Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, David Finlay & Juice Robinson
  Rating: ***
  Impact Hard to Kill: NoDQ Match: Rhino vs Moose
  Rating: ***

5t. IMPACT!: Eddie Edwards vs Michael Elgin

From My Analysis:
The show opened with Eddie and Elgin brawling which turned into a match ahead of schedule. What we got was PPV level to kick off this show. The two had a great chop battle in the corner which turned into Eddie laying in a few lariats before getting a little momentum. A Blue Thunder Bomb almost put things away for Eddie, but Elgin kicked out. Great submission transitions between the two, great strikes and near falls. This was really a treat to watch, Eddie got caught mid Boston Knee Party, Buckle Bombed and then Elgin Bombed.

Winner: Elgin via Elgin Bomb

5t. NJPW New Year Dash!!: Shingo Takagi & EVIL vs Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto

Festival de chloteslines en el Goto & Ishii vs Shingo & EVIL. Combate totalmente recomendado. #njdash

pic.twitter.com/wgo4VQzXhu

— Alejandro Gómez (@SrAlexGomez) January 6, 2020

From My Analysis:
Four tough strong style guys beating the hell out of one another, this was fantastic. EVIL and Ishii seemed to pair off often, throwing haymakers and lariats. Shingo and Goto still have a rubber match necessary, so you had to assume Shingo was going to try and get a shot at the NEVER Openweight title. All four wiped each other out with Lariats, Goto hit a GTR, but EVIL broke up the pin. More huge bombs, Shingo his a Draping version of the GTR, and then Last of the Dragon. Great big strong boi match.

Winner: Shingo via Last of the Dragon

5t. Imapct Wrestling Hard to Kill: Call Your Shot Trophy: Michael Elgin vs Eddie Edwards

From My Analysis:
These two are just great together. Elgin dominates for a good portion of time, but the Die Hard aspect of Eddie’s personality kicks in. Elgin throws him around outside, but Eddie just absorbs the punishment and tries to dish it back out. Chops, Lariats, Submission attempts, counter punching, this was a great match done in King’s Road style. Eddie couldn’t land the Boston Knee Party, but he used the momentum coming out of the Buckle Bomb to roll through the Elgin Bomb and pick up the surprise cradle victory. So Eddie keeps his trophy and opportunity to challenge any belt holder. This is also Elgin’s first pinfall loss in Impact. Great match.

Winner: Eddie via Sunset Flip Counter Cradle

4. NXT UK TakeOver Blackpool II: NXT UK Tag Team Championship 4 Way Ladder Match: Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) (c) vs South Wales Sub Culture (Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews) vs Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) vs Imperium (Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel)

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
Drake heads up and Gibson stands guard against Andrews. Fans troll “Arse Face!” as he climbs, but FMW gives Andrews a kendo stick! Gibson begs for mercy, but gets SMACKS and SMACKS! An then Drake gets SMACKS! The kendo stick breaks but fans fire up with Andrews! Andrews hurries up top, but here comes Imperium! Barthel yanks Andrews off to feed to Aichner’s BRAIN BUSTER! Barthel hurries up the ladder, touches the belts, but Mark Coffey returns! He drags Barthel down with a waistlock, but Barthel clubs back. Aichner saves Barthel from a suplex by holding the ladder! Barthel climbs again but Mark keeps trying. Aichner goes after Mark, brings him around, Barthel turns around, but Mark fights free! Wolfgang SPEARS Aichner THROUGH A LADDER!!

Barthel is in shock, but he hurries to climb. Mark shoves him off and onto everyone else!! Gallus is all alone, climbing up, and Blackpool is thunderous as they take the belts down! Gallus wins!!

Winner: Gallus

3. Impact Wrestling Hard to Kill: Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Callihan (c)

From My Analysis:
Early on, both competitors hit finishing moves Cactus Special and Magnum, but each person kicked out. We got a nice callback to the Slammiversary match with Tessa going for the triple dives, Sami catching the third and trying to bash her into the barricade, but Tessa Frankensteinered out of it. Sami tried to make a point, hit her with a fan’s drink, threw her knees first into a barricade and even Powerbombed her through a table, but she got up. After hitting Magnum on the apron (which is a terrible spot since she takes more damage landing on apron) there was a 10 count spot. Tessa was selling her knees well through the match, but took too long and was visibly a little late, but the referee didn’t count 10.

Aside from that obvious slip, the match was pretty solid. Tessa did great selling and firing up to challenge Sami, while Sami tried to keep his same level of violence and vile behavior…treating her equally. Both stories played well, and both kicked out of finishers again later in the match. This got a good amount of time, told a great story, and Tessa managed to catch Sami often enough, to daze him into setting up the Buzzsaw DDT and Tessa makes history!

Winner: Tessa via Buzzsaw DDT

2. Zero1 Happy New Year: Zero1 Championship: Yuji Hino (c) vs Yuji Okabayashi

From My Analysis:
This was a damn good Hoss battle. Both men hit like trucks and are built like tanks. Okabayashi pulled out a lot of his signature offense early, like the Argentine Backbreaker and the Golem Splash, but the interesting thing with the Splash, is Okabayashi just couldn’t make a cover attempt, so there’s no knowing if that would’ve ended the match about 10 minutes earlier.

Hino does his cocky hands behind his back, chop me as hard as you can, spot…but it backfires a little. As they were both firing up afterwards to the point of exchanging lariats, it looked like Okabayashi’s fist caught Hino’s face, and we get a good shot at the mouse growing over his left eye and the blood dripping out around his eye.

Winner: Hino via Fucking Bomb

1. NXT UK TakeOver Blackpool II: Tyler Bate vs Jordan Devlin

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
Bate drags Devlin up, underhooks, but Devlin slips out to HEADBUTT! Devlin yanks, but Bate wants a sunset flip so Devlin bucks him off! Only for Bate to rebound, into a SPANISH FLY! BANG still hits!? Devlin flounders up to HEADBUTT again! Both men are down in a daze but Blackpool is rumbling again! Blackpool sings, “Are~ you watching, Vince McMahon?” Devlin is up first and he drags Bate over to a drop zone. Fans chant “UK! WOOP WOOP!” as Devlin climbs slowly. Devlin reaches the top but Bate springs to life to trip him up! Bate turns Devlin around and climbs up to join him. Fans fire up again as Bate brings Devlin in, but Devlin choke grips! Devlin forces Bate to switch places with him, SUPER SPANISH FLY!! DEVLINSIDE!! Cover, TWO!?! Bate survives and Devlin finally sees what Walter had to deal with.

Blackpool hopes they “Fight Forever!” as Devlin drags Bate up for quick kicks to the face, then stomps! Devlin stands on Bate’s hand to then grab it. Devlin mocks Bop, and BANG! Then he underhooks Bate, but Bate slips out to get Devlin! Devlin puts Bate on the apron, Bate HEADBUTTS hard!! Devlin flounders but Bate springboards, TORNADO DDT! Underhooks, TYLER DRIVER ’97!! Cover, TWO!?!? Bate hurries up top to CORKSCREW! Cover, Bate wins!!

Winner: Bate via Spiral Tap

Thoughts:

Well Sunday was a damn good day for wrestling. Also just to remind people, yes the Zero1 show was live on the first, but it wasn’t aired until this week. So I base qualifying matches on air date on TV, especially since so many shows film a few months in advance, so it’s not really fair to make it purely live.

That said, Tyler Bate vs Jordan Devlin, was still the best match of the week for me. Tessa may have made history, Hino and Okabayashi was a slugfest…as was the New Year Dash tag match, but Bate and Devlin was just great. Nice to see that Impact and NXT UK carried a lot of the big action for their PPVs.

This year has started with some great matches.